Senin, 20 Juni 2016

How Do Today’s Teens Compare to Previous Generations?

How Do Today’s Teens Compare to Previous Generations?

Would you guess today’s young people are drinking more or less alcohol than you when you were a teenager?
What about drugs? More or less?
Sex?
Smoking?
Last week Vox.com released an article with a title saying, “Today’s teens have babies less than you did.” Then the words “have babies” scroll off the screen and are replaced by the word “fight.” Then “drink.” Then “use meth.”
The article goes on to compare the results of the CDC
Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey over the last several decades.
It even allows you to select the year you were born (if after 1972) and
compare your teen years to today.
The question I have to ask is, “Are they right?”
No, I’m not questioning the integrity of the CDC study. In fact, when
the most recent survey was released (they release it every two years), I went through some of those numbers with you in detail.
The CDC report is good. It’s the interpretation or “spin” of the report you have to always carefully consider.
Years ago when headlines claimed sexual activity was down in the last decade, I took you on a tour
of what those numbers actually revealed. The reality is, teen sex has
not dropped in the last decade. If you don’t feel like reading my whole
breakdown, the short of it is this: More kids were having sex in the
’80s and ’90s, then it dropped about 8 percent by the turn of the
millennium, and has stayed pretty level since. In fact, the CDC’s
reports actually say, and I quote, “These levels of sexual experience
have not changed significantly from 2002.” (I broke down all the numbers
in detail here in our Youth Culture Window article back then.)
So what should have the headlines read?
Again, it depends what vice we want to talk about. Binge drinking is
down. Smoking is way down. But even the Vox.com report admits, trying
marijuana is way up, about 10 percent. And sex? It’s down since 1991…but
really hasn’t moved much in the last 14 years…among TEENS.
That’s where this gets a little more interesting. So far we’ve just
been talking about teens. If we look at college kids/young adults, we
get a different picture. In fact, casual sex is more common with this
college-age group than years past. Mandy Stadtmiller described it well
in the title of her Mashable.com article, How long until sex? For millenials, try 10 texts or less. She cites an interesting SDSU study
revealing a huge generational shift in attitudes about sex, with
acceptance of premarital sex increasing from 42 percent in 2000 to
58 percent in 2012 (and acceptance of same-sex relationship more than
tripled). In fact,
Millenials are 13 percent more likely to hook up (casual sex) than Xrs
were, but with fewer partners. In fact, “sex with aquaintances in the
last year” jumped over 10 percent as well in the last decade. In a world
where 59 percent of young adults (ages 20-26) have sent a sexual text message, I guess this isn’t surprising.
So read the numbers carefully. When you read the Vox.com article
linked above claiming today’s teenagers are watching less
television…read the fine print. Because today’s teenagers are staring at screens far more than ever before, but now that includes Netflix and Hulu on their small screens…which, yes…officially isn’t television. (Nice spin, eh?)
Please don’t get me wrong. I’m not one of those doom and gloom guys
who thinks today’s teenagers are all going to hell on a bicycle. In
fact, I liked this Vox.com article because it shined a light on some
areas where our culture has really made some strides (smoking, binge drinking,
teen pregnancy…). I just want to make sure we don’t paint an
unrealistic picture. We still have a lot of ground to gain, especially
teaching young people sex matters.
So keep up the good work being advocates of truth, and be aware how the media spins things.
Jonathan McKee is the president of The Source for Youth Ministry, is the author of over a dozen books including the new Get Your Teenager Talking, The Guy’s Guide to God, Girls and the Phone in Your Pocket, The Zombie Apocalypse Survival Guide for Teenager, and youth ministry books like Ministry ,y Teenagers, Connect: Real Relationships in a World of Isolation, and the 10-Minute Talks series. Jonathan speaks and trains
at conferences, churches and events across North America, all while
providing free resources for youth workers and parents on his websites, TheSource4YM.com and TheSource4Parents.com. You can follow Jonathan on his blog,
getting a regular dose of youth culture and parenting help. Jonathan
and his wife, Lori, and their three teenagers Alec, Alyssa and Ashley
live in California.